


Binary Stars

by apotropaicsymbol



Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: AU - Dora Lives, Alien Biology, Developing Relationship, Dora Skirth POV, F/F, Fantastic Cuddling, Vignettes, Worldbuilding, nonlinear timeline
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-17
Updated: 2019-12-17
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:20:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21837373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apotropaicsymbol/pseuds/apotropaicsymbol
Summary: How do you learn to be a person? Dora and her symbiote try to find out together.
Relationships: Dora Skirth/Other Symbiote(s)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 10





	Binary Stars

**Author's Note:**

> The name of Dora's symbiote is inspired by this interview: https://gozealouscollectionpaper.tumblr.com/post/181140373447/so-jenny-slate-dora-skirth-was-asked-in-an

It stands to reason that, if I picked out a monster, it would be the snuggly type. Story checks out, right? I woke up in the middle of the night to find myself wrapped in my weighted blanket, except I was also hugging a vaguely humanoid cylinder. I was so comfy I didn't want to move. I guess this is putting the “love” in “Lovecraft”?

 _Not the blanket_.

_What do you mean?_

A flash of image in perfect sharpness, resplendent with colors I'd never seen before – my head poking up from a thick sheet of blue glob, with the weighted blanket I'd spent my first TA paycheck on arrogantly tossed on the floor.

_Hey! Pick that up!_

You'd think that a being without eyes or a face couldn't look scornful. I used to think that, too. That was before I saw a distinctly scornful tentacle whip out and make to throw the blanket on my laundry basket.

_It's not alive, Dora._

_I know that. Just put it back, please,_ I added as an afterthought.

The oblong-with-a-head leaned, if anything, closer to me, but Lindsay obligingly spread the blanket above both of us.

 _Come on_ , I said, turning on my side. I unrolled – it's weird to talk about _unrolling_ a person, but Lindsay didn't have the same set of verbs as the rest of us. I unrolled my symbiote until she lay next to me rather on top, even less humanlike than she was before. Not an oil slick but a splash of paint from some fresco – but neither of these is right, really, because neither gets across how _alive_ she was, how obvious that she was a living being. Stroking Lindsay was deeply comforting; smooth and gooey, with just enough resistance to make it feel like she was clinging back. The gold lines were very faint in the darkness, and there was no change in texture when I touched them.

I moved my hand a little bit up, and found something else.

There was a set of irregular holes, clustered together. Old wounds from a strange weapon, something even her people could not heal. A numb, cold pain radiated from it. Mine and not mine.

In the semidarkness I put my fingers inside. The openings contracted around my fingers, firm without squeezing. Lindsay was an ocean-night curve contrasting against the lighter gray of my bed, my walls. I pressed, but not too hard. Time for mapping and analysis and copy, and to do it rapidly: to take the shocking capacity these small, soft creatures had for cell regeneration. To steal the gifts all of Klyntar would covet. There was an opening beneath my fingertips, but I could feel the edge of something curved if I pushed.

 _You're not stealing anything._ _Take it_. Lindsay was motionless. _You want some of my biochemistry? Go ahead. Not like it's copyrighted._ Something deep inside of her, or maybe inside me, opened and did not close.

 _Thank you_ , she whispered. _Thank you_.

The feeling was almost like a massage, the stretch and pressure. After a while, I felt a sense of bone-deep calm and tension released, and I pulled my hand away.

Everything was blurred without my glasses, but the holes looked like they were gone, and when I moved my hand over the same spot, her biomass was smooth and unbroken.

I rolled onto my back again. A thick, soft tentacle curved carefully over my waist, and I put my hand on it. So strong, and so gentle with me. We just lay like that for a few minutes. I looked up at the ceiling.

It's impossible to describe what symbiosis feels like to someone who hasn't been there. Like a fire upon the deep. Like a burst of sugar at the back of the brain...

And the feeling of total security, safe from blade and bullet and fire...

Wait--

I sat up suddenly, shocked enough to speak. “You can take fire?”

Lindsay stretched lazily, and her answer was sleepy. _Humans are all the same_.

I opened my mouth, my mind racing with thoughts. Lindsay gently tugged me back down, cuddled at my side. She was awake now. Both of us were. _You thought you could stop us with fire_ , that intangible voice breathed in my ear. Slime squished through my fingers to form a hand holding mine. _Right_?

“Yes,” I said. “We used it in animal trials. Venom and Yellow both evinced fear of it.”

 _We are very expensive to manufacture_ , Lindsay said. _Oxygen-breathers always use fire. Always. It is a standard tactic for your kind. Do you understand?_

I thought about human history and my stomach got very cold. “Yes.” Lindsay's thumb stroked over mine.

_What hurts one human will hurt another. What kills one human will kill another. There is little variation in the model. Humans are all the same. We are not like that, Dora._

“So you are a variant type – that is, there is a far greater range of characteristics exhibited by your people. Immune to fire.”

 _Yes_ , Lindsay said.

 _And you are, as you said, difficult – difficult to manufacture._ This raised so many questions about how symbiote reproduction worked, and how their society functioned. _Were they so afraid of you going to Earth? This isn't something that – I mean, they don't send someone like you every mission, do they?_ I was suddenly conscious of how little we knew each other, and I quickly added, Y _ou don't need to answer that if you don't want to._

Lindsay laughed in my head like dry leaves in the wind. _No, not of Earth. We ended up here by accident._

_Oh, you're right--_

_The best-case scenario is that we take the planet as soon as possible. Arrive, acquire a method of communication with the Hierarchy, and then start the real fighting when they show up. You will notice, of course, that this leaves the initial recon team vulnerable._

_Yes._

Lindsay was silent. I said, _So they need you--_

_They need me. I am the backup. The Special Forces, if you like._

_But you weren't sent to Earth_ , I said slowly. _And people—symbiotes like you--_

_Klyntar._

_Klyntar like you are very rare._

I was feeling very sleepy by this time; I think that we had been up for at least half an hour, if not more. The mood between Lindsay and I was still tender, almost, delicate; I didn't want to ruin anything. I wasn't afraid that she would hurt me – nothing even close – but she had trusted me, given me information I wasn't sure what to think about.

So I pulled the goop into my arms, kissed it (wait, was that a symbiote butt? Symbutt? How did these things release waste, anyway? Oh no, did I kiss an alien ass--)

_No, I wouldn't let that happen. You're the alien ass._

“OK. Good night.”

This time we decided we didn't need the blanket.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. Constructive criticism is appreciated.


End file.
